Video conferencing enables participants located at different sites to simultaneously interact via two-way video and audio transmissions. A video conference can be as simple as a conversation between two participants located at different sites or involve discussions between many participants located at different sites and may include shared content such as a video presentation or slides. As high-speed network connectivity has become more widely available at lower cost and the cost of video capture and display technologies continues to decrease, video conferencing conducted over networks between participants in faraway places is becoming increasing popular.
Video conferencing systems are designed to provide natural interactions between the participants. Desired attributes of these systems include a natural frontal view with correct eye contact and eye gaze and the ability to interact on a shared surface, such as a screen. The video stream of each participant is sent to the other participants so that each participant can view and interact with the images of the other participants. Consider for example a video conference between two participants referred to as a local participant and a remote participant. From the point of view of the local participant, a video conferencing system projects the video stream of the remote participant onto the local participant's screen. A camera located behind the screen captures images of the local participant through the screen while the local participant views the remote participant projected onto the screen. However, the images of the local participant can be corrupted by video crosstalk, which arises when the camera captures not only the images of the local participant through the screen but also the images of the remote participant. As a result, the video stream of the local participant displayed on the remote participant's screen is a combination of the images of the local participant and the remote participant's images projected onto the screen of the local participant. Designers and users of video conference technologies continue to seek improvements to the video-conferencing experience.